GST woes: Pune chemists write to FM Jaitley

The organisation awaits the reply to a letter that was earlier written by the association the Finance Minister on July 15, highlighting the problems faced by the chemists in the application of Goods and Service Tax (GST) being charged on the expired medicines and non-moving medicines which is an additional burden on the chemists and pharmaceuticals

The Chemists Association of Pune District, in a recently conducted meeting once again decided to write a letter to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley about the problems that they are facing post GST.

The organisation awaits the reply to a letter that was earlier written by the association to the Finance Minister on July 15, highlighting the problems faced by the chemists in the application of Goods and Service Tax (GST) being charged on the expired medicines and non-moving medicines which is an additional burden on the chemists and pharmaceuticals.

According to the letter, the chemists have also urged the Finance Ministry to raise the limit to Rs 2 crore for composite billing scheme under GST.

The letter states that in the retail business there are more than 8 lakh retail chemists with more than 1.5 lakh brands with varying GST percentage from 0 to 28 per cent each retail chemist has more than 20,000 brands in the shop. It is not feasible to calculate the above as the need of human resources also increases with the additional work.

There is also the major problem of non-moving and expired medicines due to which the availability of medicines will be severely affected and it remains unanswered.

Speaking to My Medical Mantra, Secretary of Chemists Association of Pune District, Vijay Changedia said that, “There has been no reply from the government. The question is adding burden on the chemists. The companies take strict action and therefore it affects the overall economy of the chemists. Many chemists are paying double tax. The expired medicines are chargeable again. Earlier the system was the same that the expired medicines were not charged. We are in a fix. We think about not buying more medicines as they will all get expired and we will have to bear the loss for them,” said Changedia.